Happy Monday na ka. I was far too active last week to write and now I'm getting a cold that has resulted in losing my voice.....good thing I still have some energy to type ka!
I was invited by one of our leading universities in Thailand to discuss freely how the university should lead to become proactive.
Some of the key things I learned na ka:
- We learned about how Lee Kwan Yew school of public policy managed being truly autonomous with huge endowment fund of about US$300 million: very high salary with bonus, prevention of conflicts of interest through contract and HR support, effective process of recruitment (short, negotiable, use of headhunters and poaching, etc.), support to have organized training on teaching and learning from NUS's center for developing teaching and learning.....teach to transmit, not translate issues/knowledge, investment in graduate studies, etc.
- Almost, if not all, agreed that the faculty members were the key to university development and that this was the group that effective communication was mostly needed.
- A remaining challenging question was how to handle outdated curriculums that no longer responded to the real needs....yet, senior professors tended to hold on to them??
- Leadership, governance, Flexibility in administration, with less specialization could be key to the university growth. Stanford sees itself not offering specific undergraduate degrees in the next 6 years, which means it plans to tear down the walls among faculties so students benefit from taking a variety of courses of their interest and usefulness.
- We're very much used to the world of 'template' but using it wisely by making it broad enough to fill in individual differences may become useful.
- Lacking the link about the big picture of the university management poses challenges.
- Teaching with passion is the best way to convey issues and attract attention from the students.
- Proactive search for potential students was crucial.
- Still very important was the sending of young faculty abroad.
- Internationalization was raised (envi, more teaching in English, encourage various nationalities to attend) and I couldn't be happier though I think understanding about IZN needs to be reached to ensure meaningful implementation!
This was the first of the series this university wishes to do so I hope it will be able to form some solid ideas for more actionable approaches ka.
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